The “terrible” movie Aaron Sorkin admitted was a “mess”
Since penning the powerful dialogues of A Few Good Men, it was evident that American screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was on a trajectory that would swiftly propel him to becoming one of the most prolific and distinguished writers in Hollywood. His knack for producing engaging, rhythmic dialogues seamlessly intertwined with complex, morally nuanced storylines was evident from the onset.
Demonstrating a propensity for dramatising legal and political arenas with a blend of realism and theatricality, it would soon become Sorkin’s defining characteristic – a screenwriting calling card that would permeate his fruitful career. From the outset, Sorkin exhibited a talent for crafting narratives which, while rooted in intricate political and legal frameworks, burst forth with a profound humanity and wry humour.
His scripts, whether illuminating the behind-the-scenes worlds of television newsrooms in The Newsroom or delving into the intense, high-stakes environments of Washington politics in The West Wing, were inherently linked by their intricate, almost orchestral dialogue and a steadfast, enduring respect for the complexities and virtues of his characters. This showed through even more with 2010’s The Social Network, where his handling of real-life characters won universal acclaim.
However, when he was still a fledgling writer, a 1993 movie presented a contentious blip in an otherwise widely celebrated career. Sorkin once confessed to USA Today that, while starting out, he worked on what he described as a film he’s “not very proud of at all.” The film, starring Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman, although promising in its potential with a stellar cast and its then up-and-coming writer, regrettably devolved into what Sorkin termed “a mess.”
This critique by the revered writer was not, however, related to his own writing. Instead, it was related to a singularly troubling scene coaxed into existence by the film’s director, Harold Becker. The film? The neo-noir thriller Malice. Insistent upon including a sex scene between the leading actors, Becker pushed a somewhat squeamish Sorkin, fresh from his A Few Good Men success, into writing a sequence distinctly misaligned with his now-iconic writing style.
After going home and writing a few pages of “banter” that led to the couple going to bed, thus alluding to sex, Sorkin turned in the new pages to Becker – who wasn’t pleased. “I hadn’t written that much at the time; I’d only written A Few Good Men. And I said, ‘Boy, exactly what do you mean?’ And he said, ‘Look, it’s easy, just go back to your hotel and write what you’d like to see Nicole Kidman do,'” Sorkin recollected with dismay. Stunned, he asked the director, “Are you out of your mind?”
Despite Sorkin’s apparent disdain for both Becker’s attitude towards his female actor and his approach to collaborating with a writer, the director forged ahead with a sex scene between Kidman and Baldwin. Perhaps the end result surprised Sorkin, leading him to realise Becker knew what he was doing. Unfortunately not. As he puts it, “It’s a terrible scene.”
